KARMA: Page 6 of 6

Publication Date: 30th Mar 2023
Written By: Peter Luzifer, Ruth and Daytripper.
Image Work: Peter Luzifer and Gremlin.
Biography

BIOGRAPHY - Page 6

Eventually, Karma grew tired of life at the Jean Grey School and, along with a handful of other mutants, returned to the abandoned island Utopia, where they hoped to be left in peace as the Utopians.

S.H.I.E.L.D. subsequently detected a mutant presence on the island and sent officers to investigate. However, when the officers didn't return, S.H.I.E.L.D. requested the assistance of Magik and the time-displaced young X-Men. The two teams were reluctant to fight each other, so the time-displaced Marvel Girl put Tabby and the other Utopians to sleep so that they could search for the missing S.H.I.E.L.D. officers. However, Karma was able to deflect Marvel Girl's psychic attack, and used her powers to possess half of the other team and forced them to fight each other.

Eventually, Karma was overpowered by Marvel Girl, who entered Karma's mind and learned more about Karma herself and about the Utopians being fed up with the hard lives they have had. To resolve the situation, the Utopians were teleported to the old Weapon X facility that the time-displaced X-Men were using as their base, dubbed the New Xavier School for Gifted Mutants. S.H.I.E.L.D., meanwhile, was confronted with the fact that the Avengers were allowed to set up home wherever they wanted, but mutants were always investigated and forced out. During this time, Karma's siblings were presumably being cared for by Hatchi Tech. [All-New X-Men (1st series) #40-41]

Karma and members of the Utopians later stood at Cyclops' side at Washington D.C. when Cyclops announced that a mutant revolution was coming. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #600]

However, Karma, presumably because she was still tired of fighting and the constant violence that mutants met, did not actively participate in the mutant revolution. Instead, she seemed to turn her attention to her company, expanding Hatchi Tech into the Hatchi Corporation. Within the Hatchi Corporation, Karma also established her own New Mutants team to act as her personal operatives. The team was mainly comprised of her former New Mutants teammates, who had nothing else to do – Magik, Boom-Boom, Rictor and Wolfsbane. They were joined by long time X-Men associate Strong Guy. Karma was quite strict on her team, expecting a certain level of professionalism from them when they worked for her. The team primarily investigated supernatural incidents and Karma was often at odds with the team's field leader, Magik. Part of Karma's actions were in fact influenced by her long-thought dead brother, the evil Tran, who had actually been “living” within Karma for years. Tran was attempting to weaponize magic, which Karma passed off to Magik as an important aspect of securing the future of mutant kind. [New Mutants: Dead Souls #6, 1]

After Tran eventually escaped Karma's body, Magik was able to trap him but, when she brought Tran before Karma, Karma possessed Magik to use her to fight her brother. Karma, through Magik, killed her brother with the Soul Sword – but this only enabled Tran's essence to return to Karma. The weaponized magic that Tran had been developing turned out to be linked to the former New Mutant Warlock, who was discovered dying and merged with Dani Moonstar to keep him alive. Karma seemed to have lost all control of herself as Magik, Wolfsbane and Strong Guy attempted to battle techno-organic copies of the original New Mutants. Eventually, the techno-organic magic infected Magik, Strong Guy and Wolfsbane, too. Tran planned to offer the infected mutants over to General Callahan, the military official who was now in charge of the Office of National Emergency, but after making a phone call to Callahan offering the weaponized mutants, Magik grabbed Karma/Tran and passed the infection on. [New Mutants: Dead Souls #6]

Karma, Moonstar, Strong Guy, Magik and Wolfsbane were held prisoner by the evil General Callahan and the O*N*E* for some time. During this time, experiments were carried out on Karma, Moonstar and Strong Guy, all of whom remained infected with the techno-organic virus, and they were transformed into a strange, techno-organic Sentinel hybrid. On one mission for Callahan, Karma, Moonstar and Strong Guy captured Emma Frost. [Uncanny X-Men (5th series) #19] When most of the active X-Men and dozens of allies were seemingly wiped from existence, Wolverine and Cyclops embarked on a rescue mission, freeing Karma and the others, as well as several other mutant prisoners, with the aim of re-starting the X-Men in this dangerous new age for mutants. The mutants were all invited to rejoin the X-Men team that Cyclops and Wolverine were putting together, and Karma accepted. The team had two main priorities – taking down old and new threats to mutant kind and protecting remaining mutants. [Uncanny X-Men (5th series) #12-13]

Karma spent some of her time watching over the Dark Beast, who the X-Men had allowed to set up a lab within the basement of their new headquarters, Harry's Hideaway. It was to the Dark Beast that Xuân confided that she didn't want to be with the X-Men… but she knew that if she left them she would no doubt be the target of the current increased anti-mutant hysteria. One of the Dark Beast's experiments seemed to benefit the X-Men – Karma and Moonstar in particular – as he was able to extract the techno-organic virus from them. However, as Warlock still needed a host to live, Warlock was implanted into one of Multiple Man's dupes. [Uncanny X-Men (5th series) #15]

When not battling for the future of mutant kind, Xuân took time to sort out the rest of her life – the Hatchi Corporation. She used her immense wealth to buy a large apartment complex for the X-Men to use as their headquarters following the destruction of Harry's Hideaway and gave the apartment to them as a farewell present. Xuân revealed to Dani that she no longer had a place with the X-Men – Dani was her only friend now. The others were strangers or (in the case of Magik) seemed to hate her for what her brother did to the team recently. Xuân also arranged to take custody of Shogo Lee, given that Jubilee was presumed dead along with the rest of the X-Men. When Dani asked Xuân where she would go, Xuân pointed out that she was rich and could go wherever she wanted. [Uncanny X-Men (5th series) #18]

When the new mutant nation of Krakoa was established, Karma reunited with many other former New Mutants and moved to Krakoa, where they lived in the Akademos Habitat. Karma agreed to accompany several of the other New Mutants into space to rescue Cannonball. However, they were arrested following an altercation with the Starjammers and ordered into the custody of the Shi'ar Empire. An adventure in space followed but, after it was over, Karma and the others returned to Krakoa. [New Mutants (4th series) #1-2, 5, 7]

Shortly after returning to Krakoa, Karma and several other New Mutants ventured to the nation of Carnelia, where a young mutant's powers were out of control. Carnelia did not recognize Krakoa as an independent nation and did not care for mutants. The plan was for Karma to possess the young mutant and retrieve her from the chaos she was causing, then take her back to Krakoa. Unfortunately, this did not go to plan and Karma was sucked into the young mutant's nightmarish, warped-reality landscape. Other New Mutants were eventually able to stop the young mutant's out-of-control powers and Karma was freed from the young mutant's reality-warp. Karma returned to Krakoa to recover in the Healing Gardens. [New Mutants (4th series) #9-11]

Karma soon became haunted by a strange face that seemed familiar to her, but she wasn't sure why. She confided in her troubles to Dani Moonstar. At the same time, the two friends began a new initiative to train the younger mutants on Krakoa. When one of the young mutants went missing on Otherworld, Karma and Dani crossed through a portal into the dangerous realm. Karma was particularly intent on going to Otherworld as she felt a strange connection to it, as if something had been awakened within her. After passing through Avalon with minimal trouble, despite an awkward meeting with King Jamie Braddock, Karma and Dani were shortly captured in the Holy Republic of Fae and imprisoned by Merlyn. In exchange for averting a death sentence, Karma and Dani were sent by Meryln to the Kingdom of Roma Regina, to reclaim a vessel which Merlyn claimed was stolen by his daughter, Roma. They located the vessel, and Roma transported the vessel back to where it belonged, and Karma and Dani to where they wanted to be – a favor which Roma stated that she would call in one day. They were transported to the location of the missing mutant and then returned to Krakoa. Karma later confided to Dani that the strange face she had been seeing was that of her brother, Tran. She then added that she had a plan but needed Dani's help – and asked her to be her partner in the Crucible. [New Mutants (4th series) #14-17]

Upon returning to Krakoa, Karma was able to communicate with Tran, and explained to him that she would set them both free. And so, “standing in” for Tran who had no body of his own, Karma faced off against Dani in the Cruicible, neither of them permitted to use any powers. However, as she battled her friend, Karma wondered why she would do this for her brother, all to have him returned to life in his own body, when he had caused her so much pain over the years. Karma took one last lunge at Dani, before Dani's spearhead cut into her, and she died in Dani's arms. Karma was fast-tracked for resurrection and was reborn, seemingly without Tran inside her mind. [New Mutants (4th series) #18]

Karma attended the prestigious Hellfire Gala with the rest of the New Mutants and, at the after party on Arakko, she finally had some downtime to think about something other than the struggles she had been enduring – romance. She had developed feelings for a mutant called Galura and was worried that, if she revealed these feelings to Galura, her powers might be interpreted as forcing herself on her. Magik, who no longer appeared to carry a grudge against Karma, offered her some advice and, ultimately, Karma approached Galura on the dance floor, where Galura agreed to go on a date with Karma, and the two began to dance. [Marvel's Voices Pride (1st series) #1]

When Karma's old tormentor, the Shadow King, began making his presence known on Krakoa, Karma was concerned about the amount of time her friend and teammate Wolfsbane was spending with the dangerous mutant. However, when she expressed her concerns to Wolfsbane, she was rebuffed and told to mind her own business. Karma confided in Dani about what was going on with Wolfsbane, and they agreed they needed to make sure Wolfsbane was safe. Karma and the other New Mutants met with the Shadow King and tried to explain to him that Krakoa was a time of peace for mutantkind, and that the way he was manipulating younger mutants was not acceptable. Nevertheless, the Shadow King was determined that mutants must be taught how to survive, and he trapped the New Mutants in a psychic battlefield, where he tormented them. The Shadow King was defeated by the young mutants he was influencing and purged from the body of Amahl Farouk, at which point Karma and the New Mutants were freed. Karma later met with Farouk on Arakko where he was sentenced to rehabilitation. She made it clear that she was not going to forgive him for what he did to her in the past and was merely attempting to close this chapter of her life. Perhaps the next chapter of Karma's life was already beginning, as Galura accompanied her to Arakko. [New Mutants (4th series) #20-24]